Kick off the holidays with this festive Christmas Appetiser – an Italian Cheese Log! It’s like an antipasto platter in dip form packed with minced salami, olives, peppers, green onions, a hefty dose of Italian seasonings, AND topped with sun dried tomato.
Terrific easy, make-ahead economical alternative to expensive cheese platters – and bursting with the holiday cheer!!!
A FESTIVE CHRISTMAS APPETIZER IDEA!
Bringing on some Christmas cheer with this festive Italian Cheese Log!!
It’s a far cry from your usual cheeseball with a handful of token flavourings. This one is jam packed with flavour…. loaded with Italian flavours!!
The secret ingredients in this are finely chopped salami and sun dried tomato. Taking the time to mince the salami really makes a difference because then it’s all throughout the cheese log – nobody wants to be that person who takes a giant scoop of dip only to find it’s completely devoid of salami!
As for the sun dried tomato – well, I contemplated putting it in the cheese log, but I simply couldn’t resist how great it looks when piled on top. Add a few sprigs of rosemary, and it just looks so fabulously festive – it’s a perfect Christmas appetiser for sharing!! 🎄🎄🎄
WHY YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR LIFE!
It would be so easy to ramble on and on about how great this Italian Cheese Log is, but you don’t need that. So let me just get right down to why you’ll love this!!
✅ Looks fabulous – a great Christmas appetiser made for sharing!
✅ Tastes incredible – packed with flavour!
✅ Easy
✅ Make ahead – keeps for up to a week*
✅ Makes loads
✅ But can also be scaled down
✅ Economical alternative to expensive cheese platters
✅ Adaptable and versatile! Skip the salami to make it meatless, change up the add ins!
* Subject to shelf life of salami
AN ANTIPASTO PLATTER – IN CHEESE LOG FORM!
I just love the colours in this. Even making it brings on the holiday cheer – look at all those colours! ↑↑↑
We’ve got salami, olives, chargrilled peppers (I like to use the jar with mixed colours – yellow and red – just for extra colour), cheese, and a nice hit of freshness from minced green onion.
Add a good dose of Italian seasonings – I like to make my own simple mix here but you can absolutely substitute with an Italian seasoning mix – then simply mix it all together, scrap into a loaf pan or freeform it into the shape of a log and refrigerate.
The refrigeration time is to firm it up so it can be turned out onto a platter and also to give it time for the flavours to meld. It’s terrific made on the day, but it’s even better the next day… and the next… and the next!
QUICK FESTIVE LOOK
Decorating it is my favourite part – the beauty of it being that it’s so easy!! I literally just dump an entire jar of sun dried tomatoes over the top – oil and all.
The oil is infused with flavour and it’s part of the overall eating experience. So with every bite, you have crisp salty crackers, the soft flavour packed Cheese Log, some extra pops of flavour from sun dried tomato AND juiciness from the sun dried tomato oil.
Ahhhh, it’s the perfect bite!!! 😇
If your people are more civilised than mine, then consider serving this Italian Cheese Log with small cheese knifes to spread onto crackers.
But if your people are like mine, you’ll skip the cutlery and just let everyone dive in with their hands, grabbing crackers and dunking it straight into the cheese log.
Yep, it’ll get messy. All that effort you go to, prettying it up and they are going to annihilate it.
And that’s totally ok. That’s what sharing food is all about, right?? Especially during the festive season! 😂 – Nagi x
MORE CHRISTMAS APPETISER IDEAS!
CHRISTMAS APPETISER – ITALIAN CHEESE LOG!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Christmas Appetiser: Italian Cheese Loaf
Ingredients
Cheese Log:
- 500g/ 1 lb cream cheese , softened (Note 1)
- 1/3 cup sour cream (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp EACH thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, black pepper OR 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 tsp EACH garlic powder, salt, red pepper/chilli flakes (adjust to taste)
- 2 cup cheddar or other cheese , freshly grated (Note 3)
- 280g / 9 oz roasted peppers , drained and finely chopped
- 180g / 6 oz salami , finely chopped (Note 4)
- 3/4 cup green olives , finely chopped
- 1/3 cup green onion , finely minced (3 – 4 stalks)
Topping/serving:
- 220g / 7 oz sun dried tomato strips with OIL , roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley , finely chopped (or chives)
- Rosemary sprigs (decoration)
- Jatz or other crackers , for serving
Instructions
- Spray a loaf pan with oil then line with cling wrap with overhang.
- Mix Cheese Log ingredients together. Taste and adjust salt if needed (bear in mind saltiness of crackers you are serving with).
- Scrape into loaf pan and level surface, pressing to remove air pockets. Smaller pan = taller loaf.
- Cover with cling wrap overhang and refrigerate for 4 hours+ (up to 1 week).
- Turn out onto platter, peel off cling wrap.
- Top with sun dried tomato and pour over oil. Garnish with parsley and rosemary sprigs to give it a festive look.
- Best to serve closer to room temp than fridge cold. Serve with crackers! Knives for smearing optional – it’s soft enough to scoop with crackers.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Cute Christmassy photos of Dozer is all part of the Christmas tradition. Except…… he fell asleep mid photo shoot! 😂
Website is awesome and love all your recipes Nagi, Merry Christmas 🎄
The new website design is simply beautiful 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 And love this recipe. Couldn’t wait to try it out 😍
Love the new website design, didn’t mind your old one either, have a lovely Xmas can’t wait to try this one 🤗🎁🌲
I can’t wait to fix this for my family. Of all the food mailing lists on the internet, yours is the only one I subscribe to. Now, it is even better with the new website. Love that you personally answered my email about cooking a leg of lamb. thank you again.
Loving the new look
And can’t wait to put this on my Christmas table
Love the new look! Really stands out. Your website is my go to recipe site, thank you so much for all you do!
Looking forward to making this log for a Boxing Day get together.
New website looks amazing! As does this recipe! My family does a “snack” dinner on Christmas Eve (night before Thanksgiving also), cheese ball, dips, chicken wings, crab rangoon, cocktail shrimp, etc. This will be the perfect thing to bring for it. I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks. Thank you so much!
Nagi, I really love following your website. It’s my go to website whenever I wanted to try something new (Which is almost daily basis). I’ve tried a few of them and they are all spot on.
For this new layout, I must say that I love the shortcut buttons right at the top of the page where I can directly just click on to bring me to the recipes, video or Dozer. It’s really a time saver whenever I want to quickly zoom in to the how-tos or when I want to amuse myself with Dozer. Please keep up the good work. I just can’t get enough from your brilliant culinary skills.
Hi Nagi,
Love the new website ! Larger font and pictures are really mobile (cell) friendly ! Plus the format is even easier to find random recipes I’ve never made before which I love ! 🍻
Your website looks fantastic! I like how the recipe is blocked off with a border. Looks like you put lots of work into this. I enjoy getting your recipes and yes, the Italian cheese log is gorgeous.
Nagi WOW!!! Website looks fresh and vibrant, easy to navigate too!! So many of our weekly meals are from your delicious recipes. Keep them coming x
Shared site with my daughters great recipes easy to follow. Cheese log is a must for Christmas Thanks Nagi
Great web site overhaul – clearly a LOT of work, and I think it was worth it. Good organization and easier to navigate. I liked the old site, but change brings opportunities to improve – thanks for taking the risk. Hey, where is the Dozer photo gallery link? And the Italian Cheese Loaf ! Just in time for the Christmas party. Can’t wait to do it your way, and then tweak it for New Year’s.
Wow Nagi, this is so brilliant. Great job. I love your recipes and reading about your love of food. 👍👍
Oh Nagi, I could make the entire recipe just for myself but then I wouldn’t be a very nice daughter, wife, and mother, would I? Just teasing actually. This looks so festive and bright.
Love your new website. It’s a dream to navigate. Happy holidays to yours from Seattle!
I LOVE your new website….it looks fabulous and I can see me looking at recipes for hours….I’ve been a fan for a long time…love your recipes! Keep up the great work and Merry Christmas to you and Dozer!
Love the sound of this recipe Nagi, I can’t wait to try it… bring on shopping day! We have at least 2 of your recipes a week …love them.
Also love the new look website, easy to navigate, easy to follow recipes and great photography … especially of Dozer 🙂
A big fan of your old site as I used it so much and knew where everything was. But after quick examination, I think the new site looks just as great as all the recipes taste! Enticing, seductive and truly Delish! (I’m going to make this recipe next week)
Great recipe – will certainly give this a whirl. Loving the new website. Dozer is living up to his name I see hahaha. Merry Christmas to you and your family Nagi xxx
Love the look of your new website. Of course I had to skip right to Dozer. Best picture ever…pancakes, syrup and Dozer. Have been wanting pancakes all week. Your picture of Dozer just makes the urge a whole lot stronger.
Love your recipes and now they just pop and are so easy to scroll through.
Thanks for what I think is the best cooking blog out there.